HALLOWE’EN SPECIAL J O S E P H I N E F O S T E R ‘ M y f a v o u r i t e c r e e p y m u s i c f o r t h i s t i m e o f y e a r w o u l d b e T h e y t h e G e s u a l d o m a d r i g a l s . a n d t h e n a r e b e a u t i f u l l y d a r k , I h e a r d t h e c o m p o s e r w a s a m u r d e r e r t o t o p i t o f f .’ ■ S e e i n t e r v i e w w i t h J o s e p h i n e F o s t e r, p a g e 8 5 .
EDINBURGH ZOMBIE CLUB HALLOWE’EN SCREEN SCARES
The somnambulist-loving fi lm group suggests some seasonal fi lm watching Interview: Gail Tolley
What’s your favourite i lm to watch at this time of year? The Beyond ticks all the boxes: it has a spooky old house, zombies and an unspeakable secret. It’s creepy but gory, a classic Italian horror movie. Watch it with the lights off and candles on. 5 UNDERAPPRECIATED HORROR FILMS Edinburgh Zombie Club picks some lesser- known i lm gems to watch at Hallowe’en
Are there any horror icons you think should be better known? Nigel Kneale wrote lots of intelligent and unsettling i lms such as the Quatermass i lms and The Stone Tape, often blending scientii c ideas with primal terror. His Beasts TV series is a bit of a lost classic. The Spanish actor and director Paul Naschy also doesn’t get his due in the English-speaking world. He’s possibly the i nest actor to don fake fur and fangs. Do you have a favourite horror scene in a i lm? The scene in The Ring where Sadako crawls out the TV must be one of the most iconic in modern horror, literally manifesting traditional horror through modern technology. For something a bit sillier but equally inspired, the underwater zombie i ghting a shark in Zombie Flesh Eaters is hard to beat.
There have been many brilliant composers and musicians who’ve worked on horror i lm soundtracks – which stand out for you? John Carpenter’s done some great soundtracks to his own i lms, Halloween being the best, but The Fog is also fantastic, with its creepy, droning synths and haunting piano line. For sheer trouser- browning bombast, Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack to The Omen is hard to beat. Also, we’re fond of anything with a Goblin soundtrack, such as Suspiria and Dawn Of The Dead. And i nally, how will you be spending Hallowe’en this year? At The Banshee Labrinyth, watching Halloween 3 and Night of the Creeps at this month’s Zombie Club! 7.30pm, free in, plus horror i lms running to closing time in what’s allegedly Edinburgh’s most haunted pub . . .
Find out more about Edinburgh Zombie Club at edinburghzombieclub.com
NIGHT OF THE DEMON (Jacques Tourneur, 1957) A genuinely eerie movie, involving a psychologist trying to break the curse of an Aleister Crowley-like cultist. It’s amazingly atmospheric, only let down by some creaky monster effects at its climax.
HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1983) A departure from the other i lms in the series, this one features a conspiracy to kill the nation’s children using Hallowe’en masks. DEATH LINE (Gary Sherman,1973) A tale of cannibals in the Underground, Donald Pleasance is great as a sleazy cop investigating a spate of disappearances, giving the proceedings a feel of the Sweeney meets The Hills Have Eyes.
THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS (John Carpenter, 1987) John Carpenter made a number of stone cold classics but some of his later work, while not as great, is often overlooked. A group of scientists studying a mysterious artefact found in a derelict church unwittingly free an unspeakable evil. Its climax is the stuff of nightmares. NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (Fred Dekker, 1986) Alien brain parasites invade a small town, turning people into zombies, leaving some of the local kids to i ght them off. A massively fun (and gory) comedy-horror.
22 THE LIST 18 Oct–15 Nov 2012